Day in the Life, A
by Quacked Lurker
Summary: No longer a one-shot. Now, a collection of short-fics revolving around Danni Fenton and family. Its not all fun and games after Phantom Planet. Ch 4: belated Father's Day gift-fic.
1. Oneshot, visiting neightbors

**I know I should be working on **_**A Phantom Spider**_**, but my muse is not responding to my pleas.**

**Perhaps working on something similar will jumpstart the deflated bunny in the dusty atic.**

_I, Quacked Lurker, do not own rights (or even stock) to Danny Phantom._

Danni Fenton shook her head as she approached her 'cousin's' family. It was still weird seeing Jack and Maddie work on a project with Phantom helping them out. Just two months ago, the adults would have dropped the tools in hand and reached for anti-ghost weapons.

While most of the world had recovered from the Disasteroid, many folks were still skeptical about ghosts being real, Amity Park had known and accepted their presence for three years before hand. Most of them were shocked but not overly concerned about the revelation of halfas.

Danni did not tell anyone about her unique relationship with Vlad Masters and Danny Phantom. The Fentons had unofficially adopted her into the family after she 'revealed' the fact she was a cousin of Danny—several times removed, in forged paperwork, but still a cousin.

Jazz was absent at the moment. Sam Manson and Tucker Foley were spending valuable time with their parents. Which turned out to be a good thing.

"DUCK"!

Danni fell to the ground and heard the toast hit the wall before crumbling into burnt ashes. She stood up and dusted off the remains. "I see you inherited your mother's cooking skills."

Jazz stomped into the living room, interrupting whatever device her parents were working on this time. "Dad, we're out of Fudge and Ham, but you haven't put up a fuss?"

Maddie looked up and strolled into the kitchen, but keepied an ear on her husband's comments.

Jack carefully placed the cylindrical object on the cluttered coffee table. "I wanted to get this dimensional phase transmitter prototype fixed before Phantom's fans break down the door." He shrugged.

Danny phased through the floor. "Wasn't that the same item you were working on when the house disappeared for a week?"

Jack said, "I had no blueprints or plans to explore other realms—it was an accidental crossing of two or three wires and a time-delayed spark that rendered us homeless for one whole afternoon."

Maddie poked her head through the open doorway, interrupting the interrogation. "We can test this device out after lunch." She wagged a finger at Danny and Danni. "Go wash up you two."

After a delightful meal of taco salad, yogurt, and Pepsi, the five Fenton walked outside and hopped into the Fenton RV. Well, the three kids immediately took their seats, but Jack lugged the final attachment that looked like an elongated soup can and attacked it to the top of an augmented shotgun. He and Maddie both double-checked the blueprints and angle of the device before placing it on the ceiling of the Ghost Assault Vehicle, and screwed it on.

The final step done, the parents clamored in and strapped on their seatbelts. "Hang on kids, this is going to be a bumpy ride."

Danni didn't understand why Danny and Jazz looked a bit green at the thought, but she copied their movements and wrapped her arms around the armrests and pushed herself deep into the coverings.

With nay a sound, the motor caught and sputtered, but obediently turned over and warmed up. Jack drove the RV down the sidewalk and to the corner before flipping a few new switches.

Energy hummed through the wires dangling from the ceiling, and wires glowed in bursts. A recently installed energy readout lit up and showed the charge capacitor of the gun to be slowly approaching one hundred percent. When the green light hit ninety, Mrs. Fenton pulled out a lever and aimed down the street.

Thankfully, there were no cars or pedestrians, but even if there were obstacles, Jack's driving would have sent the living and mobile running for their lives. This absence of people meant no one was around to see a blue beam shoot from the laser-like device and create a dimensional portal, not unlike other energy devices created by the Fentons. After the RV slipped into the circle, it disappeared, leaving behind no trace of its presence or its passengers.

For this reality, no more than twenty minuets passed before a second blue circular portal opened up and spat out a much battered vehicle. The outer armor smoked and it did not move after being dumped onto the asphalt.

Jack, wearing a sling slid out the driver's door. He scratched his head with a blistered left hand. "Well, I'm not going back to that dimension."

Danni slipped passed Maddie and her brother. Once her shoes hit the grass, she flopped on the dirt, breathing in deeply. "I'd never thought I'd miss my hometown."

Jazz chuckled and joined her sister. "Hopefully this little adventure will keep Dad from messing around with the time stream and alternate realities." She frowned. "Though, he'll probably want to visit other worlds that don't have ghosts"

The two Fenton ladies watched as Danny stumbled out of the RV and collapsed on the street. Maddie, nursing a bruised shoulder, stepped down and helped him to his feet. Jack, meanwhile, clamored around the undercarriage, and looked under the hood, trying to find the problem.

Danni laid on the sun-warmed grass. "It feels like we were gone for months."

Jazz frowned, but remained sitting. "For us, it wasn't even two weeks. Though, I do want to know how much time passed for everyone else."

The late-afternoon sun began to hide behind an cloud. The two Fenton girls jumped to their feet and glanced warily around them. "So, do you think Ben succeeded in saving his world from the Highbreed?"

"I hope so. I do hope so—otherwise, we just might be visited by him or his friends."

Danni began jogging home. "I hope Danny doesn't mind if I contact Tucker and Sam when we get home and tell them about our adventure."

Jazz followed. "You really should make some friends of your own"

"Like who? Everyone younger is following Paulina's example and following Phantom's family around. How will I know who among the mobs that pop up everywhere are interested in me for me instead of my relationship with their hero?"

By this time, four of the five dimensional hoppers were back home. Maddie interrupted. "Good friends will stick through the bad times as well as the good. I know you weren't around before the news broke out, and you were able to find any living family, but there are some folks out there with kids your age." She grasped both daughters by the arm, and led them upstairs. "Cheer up. I think the boys needed the change of scenery more that they admitted."

A filthy Jack bumbled his way downstairs and grabbed the Fenton Crammer before leaving again. Danni watched from the top of the stairs as Mr. Fenton ran to grab his experimental vehicle before it could be towed away.

The petite black haired, blue-eyed child smiled. "It's good to be considered family." She said to herself before she picked up a towel to clean up.


	2. Thanksgiving

_**HAPPY (belated) THANKSGIVING**_

**This is meant to entertain, not to make me a profit. ENJOY**

Rays of sunshine lit the nearly empty streets of Amity Park. It had snowed lightly the night before, and a fine layer of white powder covered the homes and yards. It was the fourth Thursday of November, and many households were just beginning to stir. At least, those who were federal employees and students, were able to enjoy the holiday.

Mr. Lancer, unable to go visit his 'sister', had gladly accepted Danny's invitation to come spend the Thanksgiving meal with his family. Lancer, having heard a horror story or two of Mrs. Madeline Fenton's meals, had decided to help out with the preparation of the meal.

Mr. Lancer parked his truck in front of his destination and slid outside. He took a deep breath of the refreshing cold air, and grabbed the basket of treats before going up the walkway. From the outside, the Fenton home looked like its neighbors.

Lancer adjusted his offering as he struggled to reach the doorbell. The door opened and two black-haired children waved in the welcomed guest. As he stepped inside, welcome heat enveloped him, and he was lost in the array of scents and smells, like Pumpkin Spice.

Having never been inside the Fenton home while the holidays were approaching, Lancer was completely unprepared for the inside, which was quite different from what the walk up hand prepared him for.

Nerveless fingers loosened their grip on the basket. A child snickered. "I never thought I'd see the day when the infamous Lancer was speechless." Warm hands gently grabbed the basket from his hands.

Lancer looked down. A young girl, late pre-teens, if that old, took the basket into the kitchen. The black haired teenager Lancer identified as Daniel Fenton. "Telling stories to the extended family?"

Danny shrugged. "Not me. Everyone knows you shout out book names when stressed, or shocked."

Three heads poked in from the kitchen. Jasmine Fenton, Madeline Fenton, and the young girl from earlier, smiled. "Come in, come in." Said Maddie as she waved a wooden spoon covered in cookie dough. The two children were gently pushed towards the main entertaining room. "Hmm, we might have to move the tables from the dinning room,"

Lancer spoke up. "I brought some nuts and other items that don't need cooking."

Jazz laughed. "Thank you! You are always welcome at our family gatherings." She brought in orange streamers and a stapler. "Would you mind helping hang up the decorations, please?"

Jack's voice echoed in from another floor of the house. Lancer thought it was the basement, but wasn't completely sure. "Did you bring fudge? Or ham?"

The house was festive. Noisy, at times, but festive and filled with ever-changing scents as the cookies were pulled out of the regular conventional oven, and pies were placed in. In the kitchen, Jazz and Maddie prepared the Cornish hens and turkey for baking. The birds were already cleaned, now all that was left was to stuff them, tie the legs up, and cook them.

In the living/entertainment room, Danny and Lancer carefully scooted the chairs, sofa, and other large furniture items to the walls, before they brought three tables in from other rooms of the house. The ladies kept busy washing the depression-reproduction style lunch and dessert plates, in addition to preparing the food. Jack was busy doing something that kept him off the first floor, which no one else found odd.

Long before noon, the preparations were complete. Except for the fact the turkey was still in the oven, everything seemed ready.

The table was set with hand painted water goblets, colorful plates that might have matched other peoples Christmas dishes, and had several containers of nuts, fruits, vegetables, butter, dressing, cranberry sauce, and other Thanksgiving trimmings lining the main table.

Other flat, stable surfaces had cornucopias filled with fruits. Lancer identified pumpkins, pears, peaches, plums, apples, bananas, pineapples, persimmons, oranges, and grapes. Those were the foods he could identify; there were several more he wasn't sure of the name—was there kiwi available?

Through the efforts of arranging the tables properly, Lancer was able to gleam the name of the girl who looked a lot like Daniel. Her name was Danielle, and she was a cousin of the kids, but it was never made clear which side of the family she was from.

Now that the table was set, Danny and Danielle were happily sneaking cookies between small handfuls of nuts. Lancer smiled the first time he saw the hands reach for a dessert instead of the pre-meal banquet foods. The forth time, he began chuckling.

When the oven binged, and the turkey pulled out, Danielle and Danny sat down at the table. Jazz slipped over to the stairway. Lancer stepped into the kitchen to help dish the foods into the serving bowls. As he poured the steaming vegetables into a green glass bowl, he saw that the microwave had been removed. His brown eyes searched for the ecto-enhanced cooking devices, and found nothing out of the ordinary.

"Everything smells delicious, Mrs. Fenton"

Maddie nodded her head. "Thank you. I wasn't too sure about using the appliance that came with the house, but Jack's been unable to repair our Fenton helping machines."

Lancer put down the empty pan of vegetables and picked up the pan of potatoes. "That's good, isn't it?"

Jack chose then to appear. "No, its not!" he bellowed. "Our inventions were made ineffective by ghostly intervention."

Maddie gently placed a pot-holding hand on her husband's shoulder. "Not now, dear."

Jack subsided, and took the carved turkey into the living room, with Maddie carrying three filled bowls, and Lancer grabbing the plate of potato bread.

With the table now filled with the food, the three adults took their seats. Jack sat at one end, with Maddie on his right, while Lancer sat across from him. Jasimine was at Lancer's right, while Danny sat across from Maddie and Danielle took the remaining seat between Mrs. Fenton and Mr. Lancer.

Jack coughed into his napkin. "Before we dish up our food, it has become traditional for us all to announce one thing we are thankful for. Who will start?"

Danielle spoke up. "I just wanted to let you all know how much I enjoy you taking me in, when my folks couldn't." She blushed and glued her gaze onto her empty plate.

Maddie smiled. She placed her hand in her husband's. "I'm extremely thankful that we could all make it, and for my husband of twenty-four years being there when I really needed his presence." Her eyes sparkled as she glanced at Jack.

Jack nodded. "I'm thankful that no ghosts invaded, and for my two wonderful children, and my friends. Oh, and my wife, for being by my side at all times."

Danny shook his head. "I wanted to express my appreciation for all your help, Lancer, and I wanted to remind everyone that I still love them, even if I don't always show it." He mumbled something under his breath. Lancer thought it sounded like "even though I sometimes willfully ignore your commands" but that couldn't be right.

Jazz looked like she was going to sneeze. "I am thankful that we could all spend this holiday together, and that we are a family. It doesn't matter who we are, or what our background is, but we are family in the ways that matter."

Before she could continue her speech, Danny elbowed her, and Jazz became silent. Lancer signed. "I wanted to thank you all for inviting me, and making me feel welcome.

It's not easy being away from parents, or siblings, but thanks to those who care, and those who are willing to reach out, we can all be thankful for something."

Jack nodded. "Amen," His hands clapped together. "Now, let's eat!"

Brunch—or was this Supper/Dinner/Lunch?—was a noisy affair, but it was still festive and there was no shouting or yelling involved. Several conversations at once made for a louder than normal meal, but no one was left out.

The sun was just beginning to set, when Lancer reluctantly gathered his basket and turned to go. The dishes were cleaned, the food placed in the refrigerator or freezer, and the furniture was back in its original spot, and it was time to go home and call his family to see how their Thanksgiving was.

He'd placed his hand on the doorknob when Danielle tugged his other arm. "Wait a moment, please?"

Back in the living room, Jack stepped forward and thumped Lancer soundly on the back. "You're welcome back any time. Those hens were delicious."

Maddie pried Jacks arms off the startled teacher. "Yes, thank you for helping."

Jasmine and Daniel shook his hand. Before he could say goodbye to Danielle, music began playing from the stereo. Lancer frowned for he didn't recognize the lyrics.

Jazz did, for she groaned. Danny and Dani grinned and laughed. "Alvin and the Chipmunks!" They shouted and began singing along with the narrator through the opening cords for The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Lancer grinned as he successfully made his way through the door, and outside. Once back in his truck, he turned on the truck and headed home. He laughed when he heard over the radio; "On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me five golden rings."


	3. Introductions

**Phantom Planet might have ended the official cartoon series, but it still let a few loose ends floating around. I am not Butch Hartman, but I do acknowledge him as the creator of _Danny Phantom_****.**

Danni Fenton, clone of Danny Fenton, sometimes wished she had had a real childhood instead of these fake memories she did have. Knowing that her past did not belong to her weighed her down, emotionally.

Still, the preteen mused as she hung in the alcove near Fenton Works, she was alive, and had really cool ghost powers, but this family wasn't hers.

Danni stepped back into the shadows. She couldn't do it. As much as she wanted, needed a real family, with actual folks to take care of her and love her, she couldn't drop in. It wouldn't be fare to Danny, the real child of Jack and Maddie.

Head bowed low, the young child slunk through the backyards of the neighbors. She didn't get caught because she didn't want to be noticed. With ghost powers, it was as simple as that – wish to be invisible, granted. Need to pass through solid objects, granted. Just take a deep breath and imagine that the laws of physics didn't exist for her, and she could fly or shoot laser beams from her hands.

Once she was out of sight of the Fenton home, Danni released the tight hold she had on her powers. One second, there was no one there, the next, she was fully visible to anybody who cared to look. Not that Amity Park wanted to see her. As much as the world was willing to _ooh_ and _awe_ over a teenager who saved the world, they still didn't have eyes for those who didn't have the heroics. Same powers, but none of the attention.

Danni Fenton walked to Casper High, not paying any attention to the few people outside at the moment. They were all mindful of their own errands, and so was she. Danni had an appointment at the school.

Princess Dora waited near the steps. "I take it the talk did not go as anticipated."

Danni sank onto the concrete slab. "There was no talking."

Dora tried to imitate the youngster, but ghosts, full ghosts who resided in the ghost zone and rarely visited the human world, couldn't actually make contact with the ground. So, instead of sitting on the cement, Dora ended up hovering above the cold floor, keeping her several inches higher than Danni. "I did not hear any screaming, nor do I see any evidence of a fight."

Danni blinked back tears. "I couldn't do it! It should have been easy just walking up to the door and knocking, but I couldn't!" She turned towards her friend, one of the few humanoid ghosts willing to put up with a living visitor for an undetermined length of time. There were a couple of others who might have been willing to play host, but Dora had volunteered first.

Dora awkwardly patted Danni's back while the human sobbed on her dress. The tears would do no lasting harm, and the young child needed the physical contact. "Would you like me to talk to them, perhaps?"

"NO!" Danni tried pulling back out of the Princess's grasp, but couldn't back away. "They are ghost hunters! They'll try to hurt you!"

Dora looked Danni in the eye. "They accept young Daniel."

"Yeah, but he's their son."

"And you have his memories." Dora sighed. "I do not understand what your culture has against acknowledging those who are related to you. You share Daniel's blood, therefore, they are your parents. Talk to them."

"I can't. They won't understand."

"Understand what?"

Both ghost and human jumped. "Oh, hi, Jazz."

The red-haired teenager just glared at the two. She held out a familiar boomerang. "Understand what?" She repeated, holding tightly to the beeping, invention. "This 'stupidly named tracking device' responds to you. Why?"

Danni stood up, slid out of her friend's reach and stepped forward, head hung low, accepting what was to come. "I'm a clone," she whispered.

Jazz either had very good hearing, or saw the similarities and put together the truth quickly. "A clone of Danny." She pursed her lips, and looked upwards for a brief moment. "Who created you? Ack, never mind." Jazz focused on the present. "Forget I asked. I've heard my brother complain about a 'crazy-old fruitloop' too many times."

Danni bit back a giggle.

"Heard the stories? Good, so I don't have to repeat them." Jazz stepped forward and hugged the girl. "You're all skin and bones. Come on." She gently led the young girl back down the road towards home. "Thank you Dora."

Dora nodded her head. "You are welcome, Jasmine." The ghost faded from view.

Jazz held onto the girl who so closely resembled her younger brother. "I'm shocked that my brother didn't contact you earlier."

Danni tried freezing, but the relentless pull Jazz had, kept the Fenton girl moving.

"My brother might be a bit absent minded, but his heart's in the right place. I know Sam and Tucker wouldn't want any relative of Danny's to be on the street alone."

Danni sputtered. "I wasn't alone."

"No, but you weren't with a family. Not that Dora's not a good person, but she didn't grow up in the same culture you and I did. Very bad for your mental health, having to figure out new standards and revise 'acceptable' and 'vulgar' while trying to find your place in life. Anyway, Dora might be a good friend, but she can't replace the mother and father figure everyone needs."

Danni let Jazz ramble, allowing the familiar voice wash over her, and feeling the stress disappear as she relaxed. It was funny, she'd never met Jazz before, in real life, and yet her memories insisted that Jazz was her bigger sister and would take care of her. Danni wasn't so far out of it that she failed to recognize their eventual destination, but the path to the front door didn't register until after they were walking up the steps.

"Hey, what?"

Jazz had come prepared for this sudden hesitation. For the last week, a stranger had walked passed the window, at dinnertime every single night, and approached the door, but didn't come any closer than the first step. It was as if she feared her presence would bring pain to the parents. Jazz, noticing the similarities between the stranger, her brother, and their dad, and finally located the boomerang and placed it on the coffee table by the door. She hadn't expected it to react to the strange girl like it did to her brother.

Believing that tonight was the last time to get answers, Jazz immediately took after the young girl, expecting the disappearing act. The ghost gauntlets were bulky and awkward to handle, so Jazz had an alternative plan. The fishing wire from the Fenton Fishing Pole.

Danni tried pulling away, but the previously unnoticed loop from the fishing wire tightened almost painfully on her wrist. "Let me go!"

"Nope." Jazz's negative reply was cheerfully delivered. "Not until you talk to your parents."

"My parents? Jazz, they don't even know me."

"Doesn't matter." Before stepping inside, Jazz thrust the struggling girl in ahead of her. "Mom, Dad, there's someone you should meet."

Predictably, Danny was the first to arrive. "Danni!"

"Oh, you two know each other? Good." Jazz let go of the coil of wire. "When were you going to tell us Vlad Masters cloned you?" She thrust a finger in her brother's face, stepping forward so quickly he backed into a wall, failing to remember he could phase through it.

Jack and Maddie, predictably, didn't take the situation all that calmly. "Excuse me?"

Maddie turned to look at her son, and glared at him. Danny shrank back from _The Look!_. "Exactly what crisis and problems should we be aware of, son?"

Jack took in the beeping lights of the metal boomerang, and the cringing girl in the center of the room. "You look how I imagine Danny would be if he was a girl."

Danni hugged her arms to her chest. "Cause I am Danny. A female version of your son."

Danny jumped past his sister and hugged her. "Yeah, I should have introduced you all earlier." He stepped back, not meeting the eyes of anyone. "Mom, Dad, Jazz, this is Danielle Abigail Fenton. Danni, this is my - OW, Jazz!" He rubbed his arm, and mouthed 'what'? Jazz gestured a bit and frowned.

After a few seconds frantic silent conversation Danny cleared his throat. "Danielle, this is our family." He stepped back and rubbed his neck, elbow above his head.

Maddie held out her hand. "Welcome, Danielle. How are you?"

Jack glanced at the dinner table. "Do you have ghost powers, too?"

Danni whispered, "Yes."

Jack accepted the answer. "Cool." He grasped her hand and dragged her to the table, setting her in a previously empty seat. In the next motion, he had placed a plate, glass, knife, fork, spoon, and napkin in front of her. "Have something to eat. You look hungry. Want some fudge?"

"Jack!" Maddie turned the look towards him.

"What? Danny knows her, she's got ghost powers, and she said she's a female version of our son. We get another kid, without having to potty-train this one."

Jazz and Danny blinked. Danni blinked. "Um, thank you?"

Maddie sighed. "A clone?" Danni nodded once. "Do you want everyone to know you share Danny's DNA, or should we tell those who ask you are his cousin?"

Danni smiled, feeling welcome and wanted. "For now, can we tell everyone I'm a second cousin of your son or something?"

"Sure. If you ever change your mind, just tell us. Pass the ham, please."

The table, previously set for only four Fentons, was now seating five Fentons, and would be the sight of many more family meals of five Fentons.

31 December 2011

Happy New Years everyone, and a Belated Christmas!


	4. new Father's Day

Danni Fenton flopped on the air mattress in Jazz's room. The college bound teenager paused her application-process activities. "Problems?"

Danni groaned. "Yes! Tomorrow is Father's Day and I don't know what to get Ja – Dad."

Jazz swiveled in her seat, really looked at the female copy of her brother. "If dad isn't automatically dad in your mind, who – never mid I don't want to know." Jazz scrunched up here closed eyes and recoiled from the thought.

Why don't you get dad what Danny normally gets him?"

Danni stared at her older adopted sister. "First of all, that sounds weird,"

"Shorten Danielle into something else," Shot back Jasmine. "It'll take forever to relearn to call my brother by a different name, and there is no way I'm calling him Dan."

"Stop exaggerating! Second of all, my memories aren't real memories – "  
"They are real!" Jazz snapped her jaw shut before she could put her foot in her mouth by uttering "Just not the events you yourself were creating"

"Third of all," Danielle Fenton continued as if the interruptions had not occurred, "Daniel won't remember to buy something until the day after tomorrow."

Both girls sighed.

Jazz slipped out of her wood backed chair, sat next to Danni. "You want your first Father's day with us to be special, right?"

"Right," Danni nodded, picking at the carpet fibers.

Jazz slapped the hand before it could begin unraveling the floor-rug. "Homemade Fudge or Grandma's Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies would work"

"As a dessert, not as a gift. Besides Ma mom does the cooking." The younger child pointed out, wanting to give her new-found father something besides food.

"Mother recently installed an ecto baking component she wants to test out."

Danni shot out the door.

"You're welcome," Jazz shouted. Shook her head, went back to the application she'd put on hold to help the newest family addition through this crisis. Her hands remained frozen over the keyboard, not typing a word.

Jazz leaned back, allowed to glaze over. _Mom isn't that bad_. Jazz knew that Maddie Fenton refrained from using untested, prototype, or modified kitchen appliances when it came to holiday meals. Father's day counted as a holiday, and thus, there would be no experimental recipes, cooked, backed, or prepared in any way.

The day after, all bets were off.

Jazz turned off the computer, wandered downstairs. It had been an idle warning, yet Danni acted as if the possibility was very real. Did that mean Danny feared the same? That mom would somehow ruin the holiday feast by cooking with ghost-enhanced tools and appliances?

"Want any help?" Jazz poked her head in the kitchen where the Danny/Danni cousins were busy searching for something.

"Jazz?" Danny flushed, even as Danni hovered, reading the titles of the cookbooks hidden above the microwave. "Where did mom hide the cookie recipe?"

Shaking her head, Jazz opened the drawer that held the wooden spoons and spatulas, before rummaging around "Got, it" and pulling out an old, laminated note-card, simply titled "Cho Chp Ck."

"Thanks." Danni grabbed the card sat on top of the refrigeration. She called out ingredients, one by one.

Danny phased his hands and arms through the cupboard walls, pulling out the items, "Check" depositing them on the table.

Bemused, Jazz measured out precise measures of flour, sugar, baking soda, vanilla, vegetable oil, "Single batch or double?"  
"Double," came in chorus. "Do we ever do a single?" Danny asked, dumping the dry foods in a large metal mixing bowl. He eyed his sister as she snipped open the twelve-ounce bag of chocolate chips.

Danni got off her perch and whisked the eggs, adding in the vanilla, while the oven preheated to 325 degrees F. "Real butter or margarine?"

"Tastes better with the real stuff," Jazz pulled out cookie sheets and sprayed them with the no-stick spray. "I ask because it's habit – and mom once made a triple batch."

Identical chuckles and snorts from the black-haired cousins. "You mean, _Tried_," Danni wiped tears away. Danny clutched his stomach, the mixing bowl filled with dry ingredients thoroughly mixed temporarily ignored.

Maddie and Jack wandered in drawn by the laughter.

"Hey, mom, we've making Grandma's famous cookies. Want to help?"

Maddie smiled. Jacks smiled too. "I'll make some fudge," he offered, stepping in the kitchen to start working on the batch of fudge.

Few home kitchens had both the counter-space and the floor-layout to allow five adults to be working on several recipes at once. The kitchens got crowded with a chef and two child-sized assistants. Not the Fenton's kitchen.

If one moved the dinning chairs to the living room, the kitchen became spacious enough for five adults to work simultaneously – and they could all be working on different foods, different recipes, without feeling cramped. With three working on one process and steps (divided up earlier by unspoken agreement), and two on the second dish, there was plenty of room for all five in the Fenton kitchen.

The house rang with laughter, as happy memories were made on this fine precursor to Father's day.


End file.
